In the headlines: was Emmanuel Macron spied on?
Audio 03:49
The phone number of French President Emmanuel Macron would appear in the list of 50,000 numbers targeted by the Pegasus spyware.
© Ludovic MARIN POOL / AFP
By: Sébastien Duhamel Follow
9 mins
Publicity
The fear of big ears is all over the newsstands this morning.
"
Macron, in the sights of Morocco
", headlines
Liberation
.
"
A Macron phone in Morocco's viewfinder
," says the front page of
L'Humanité
.
All the newspapers obviously take up the new revelations from
Le Monde
and the international media consortium which investigated the Pegasus software.
The Parisian Today in France
also devotes its front page to it, showing Emmanuel Macron with a phone in his ear, another in his hand.
But of course, the caption doesn't say if this is one of the phones that has potentially been spied on.
The president and his government targeted
Le Parisien
explains to us that “
the president and his entire government in 2019 would have been targeted by the Israeli software Pegasus. The sponsor would be Morocco
”. "
Democracy under attack,
" laments the editorial in Le
Parisien
. There is no way for the media to know if the presidential phone has indeed been infected with Pegasus - a former senior French intelligence official tells the
Parisian
that it will be "
very difficult to have proof
"- but the number of Emmanuel Macron is"
a number in a list that has 50
000
, "says
Libération
.
The daily stresses that, in any case, these surveillance technologies are themselves "
too little monitored
" and that "
for years, NGOs have been calling for stricter control
".
Some relatives of the Moroccan king concerned
The French are not the only ones concerned. Morocco would be the sponsor here, but the revelations of the
World
tell us that this cyber espionage "
extends to the family and the entourage of King Mohammed
VI
". "
The numbers of several key people in the royal entourage have indeed been entered into the tool
,
excluding the possibility that these are isolated incidents
", develops
Le Monde
. Hicham Alaoui, cousin of the king in person, fallen prince and regular critic of the Moroccan regime, also targeted by Pegasus, testifies to the
World
. For him, espionage on the Moroccan side would come under "
court phenomena.
»And would be a consequence of the full powers granted to the Moroccan DGST, the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance.
Real concern at the Élysée
In any case, the case is now causing real concern at the Elysee.
Especially since Emmanuel Macron is "
a president addicted to his laptops
", underlines
Le Parisien,
and the concerns go far beyond the case of Morocco.
"
Fear about the presidential election
", underlines the daily, "
the hypothesis of spying on Emmanuel Macron's phone reinforces the fears of the staffs on the possible manipulation in the presidential campaign of 2022
".
Even more when, at the Élysée, "
nobody forgot the Macron Leaks
": a few hours before the 2017 election, "
internal notes from Emmanuel Macron's campaign were spread on the web, invoices, accounting items and photos
... ”.
A hack that originated from "
hackers linked to Russian intelligence
,
"
Le Parisien
reminds us
.
The newspaper recalls at the same time that the three previous tenants of the Elysee Palace, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande had already been listened to, this time by American intelligence.
The Union's concern
The European Union's concern can also be read in the press this morning. "
Justice, media, corruption
: Brussels is attacking Poland and Hungary
",
Le Figaro
poster
. Hungary, precisely where Viktor Orbán "
is accused of stalking citizens
" thanks to Pegasus. "
A dictatorship [which grows] inside the Union, like a tumor,
" writes
Le Figaro
, using the words of Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt.
Concern, because in its annual report on the rule of law in the EU, the European Commission just pointed out yesterday Budapest and Warsaw, worrying about “
systemic drifts
” and “
nepotistic tendencies
”, observes
Le Figaro
.
And "
beyond the values which the EU claims to be, the objective is also to guarantee a good use of European funds
", we are told.
Money, therefore, is always where the shoe pinches in the end.
Europe and its "
inhumanity
"
The Cross
calls us once again on the fate of migrants. “
At least
1,146 people perished
” in the Mediterranean during the first half of the year. This is much more than compared to previous years notes the Catholic daily and "
this drama, in large part, is due to the fact that Europe has restricted the possibilities of rescue at sea
", he deplores. So,
La Croix
rightly asks us: "
Can we accept such inhumanity at the gates of the continent which sees itself as a benchmark in the field of human rights?"
"
But be reassured, the main thing is safe.
The front page of
Le Figaro,
for its part, tells us that tourism is "
starting again
" in Europe.
"
In dispersed order
"
, but he leaves all the same.
Yeh!
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On the same subject
President Macron on list of potential targets for Pegasus spyware
Pegasus: in France, the Paris prosecutor announces opening an investigation into espionage for the benefit of Morocco
Pegasus: many reactions and complaints filed around the world